Here are a few reasons why this misses the mark so convincingly:
1. Terrible 3D renders of products don't help you decide to buy products.
2. Nobody is going to follow the 'easy', 28-step process.
3. If this is a new way to buy, why is it only available for 40 items?
4. Oh. I still need a piece of paper to make it work?
5. I don't believe that the woman is looking for 'ports' and 'functionality'. Can't she just read those in the product specs?
5. I don't believe that the woman is looking for 'ports' and 'functionality'. Can't she just read those in the product specs?
While I'm all for companies trying out new technology to communicate with buyers and influencers (and great work by Kishino to get a household name like Tesco to give it a go and then get in the Telegraph), Augmented Reality needs to dose of Actual Reality before it takes off.
Mind you - I quite like the look of that Lego Millennium Falcon...
3 comments:
Hi
I'm Sophie, the marketing director of Kishino, the company behind the AR trial. Of course I respect your thoughts and opinions, but would like to address a few of your conclusions.
1. Terrible 3D renders of products
Did you actually try it? Actually the 3D models are of such high quality that you can zoom the marker right into the cameara - this means you can see the finest detail on a lego model without blurring or fading. It's hard to appreciate that from watching the video alone. The animated models we have done are pioneering and broken new ground in this technology whilst still maintaining the highest quality of imagery.
2. Nobody is going to follow the 'easy' 28 step process.
Be fair now :-) it's two step. Install the plug in, hold up the marker - you're done. And you only need to install the plug in once. It's no harder than installing Adobe.
3. 40 items
It's a trial at the moment, but it'd be pretty hard to launch out of the bat with all 12,000 plus Tesco Direct products in one go. Have you never heard of soft launching and testing out concepts. I'm sure the whole experience will need tweaking as we learn from this and it gets rolled out on a larger scale.
4. Piece of paper
You can use either a club card, tesco direct catalogue or tech support guide to activate it. (Or print out the marker). In store, for electricals, you don't - it's gesture (ie you wave your hand) activated. You need something to 'sit' the product on.
5. Vicki is a genuine Tesco housewife/mum, clubcard holder with a teenage son with a games console. When have you truly ever read a product spec? Seeing is much easier than trawling through a manual.
At the end of the day, the proof will be in the results which so far have been very positive across many different KPI.
Thanks though, for covering the trial. We welcome all feedback, good or constructive.
Kind regards, Sophie Neary
(@sophielovespink).
Hi Sophie! Thanks for reading and for your views. I wanted to respond to your comments, as they are all very valid and make some good points.
1. You're right, I hadn't (and it was wrong of me to post a review without trying it). I've tried it now... The renders are not detailed (you can't see individual LEGO bricks, for example) and the surfaces are smooth and not textured. Movement is quite fluid, but the animation offered jumped and jittered when my marker went slightly out of frame. I can see you've broken new ground as it's some of the best AR graphics I've seen and the ability to zoom right in is AMAZING - but, personally, they would not help me choose to buy a product.
2. For me to try it, I had to find the Tesco AR page, click 'Let's Go', download a packaged installer file, double-click to launch it, leave my browser for the application installer, hit 'continue', read the licence', hit 'continue', hit 'agree' on the dialogue box, select the drive to install the software on, hit 'continue', hit 'install', enter my admin password, hit 'ok', hit 'close', return to my browser, hit 'Let's Go' again, click on the product I wanted to see in AR, use the dropdown to select camera, hit 'activate', and then hold up the marker. When you add in the steps I had to take to print the marker out (hit 'Print your AR marker here', clck the print icon, then hit 'print') I make that 22. So yes, I exaggerated. But not by much. I also got three separate errors that cropped up a lot - the application failing to load, not opening due to 'multiple instances running' (even though there weren't), and a complete crash of the D'Fusion plugin. Once that had happened, it was a restart of Chrome before it worked again.
3. My point here was that, in my opinion, this seemed more like a conventiently-timed launch for some Christmas shopping-related PR. I really hope people like it and it becomes a feature that is more central to the site.
4. Fair enough. I'm really keen to see the day that AR doesn't rely on a marker. I'm sure you're doing great development work behind the scenes to improve the experience. I'll wait and see on that, and can't wait to try the in-store, paperless experience.
5. My comment here is subjective, but on the Tesco Direct site the number of ports for that TV are clearly listed on the 'Features' tab of that product. It is easier to read that than to go through the AR experience. I agree that other people might prefer a visual representation, but at no point did Vicki need to read the manual. Also, did you pay or reimburse Vicki in any way for her time? Did you provide her with any script or guidance on what to say?
As I said in my post, I'm really pleased you're doing this. But AR has been relentlessly hyped for years without any real improvement in the mechanism. It could be so great, but it just isn't there yet. I really look forward to seeing where you go with it next.
Thanks again for your comments and lots of luck with the results of the campaign!
Thanks very much and *all* comments are appreciated. It's a learning curve and we're discovering new things every day. I hope you stay in touch and see how we evolve.
Best, Sophie
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